The Great Miami Hurricane of 1926
Preparing for Hurricane Season

07/25/22

By: C. B.

During the turn of the 20th Century, Miami’s population grew as Henry Flagler’s Florida East Coast Railway made the far-flung city accessible.

Within two decades, the population would climb to 30,000. Flagler’s Royal Palm Hotel was a draw for visitors and the Miami News Tower, known as the Freedom Tower today, stood as a beacon for ships.

The city continued to fill with newcomers who were woefully unprepared for what would later become known as “The Great Miami Hurricane of 1926.”

Aerial view from Miami River to Biscayne Bay, Miami (1920)
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The hurricane made landfall in Miami Beach in the early morning hours of September 18, causing significant damage.

Miami residents, who had boarded up their homes and survived the first half of the storm, came outside as the eye of the hurricane passed through. When the second half began, many did not have time to run to shelter while fighting the 128-mile-per-hour winds and rainfall and were swept away to drown.  

"War can be no more terrible than the devastation wrought. Miami is smashed, Coral Gables is wrecked, with virtually every home minus a roof,” said Harold W. Colee, manager of public relations of the Florida East Coast Railway, in an Associated Press story from September 21, 1926. “Hollywood is badly hurt, while Fort Lauderdale, Dania, and Pompano are virtually leveled.”

The Miami-Dade Public Library System’s Digital Collections has images chronicling the aftermath in its Gleason Waite Romer Photographs Collection. Displayed below are before and after images of the Tilford Cinema Studios in Hialeah, the Deauville Casino in Miami Beach and more showing the damages the area sustained.

After the hurricane, Florida East Coast Railway indicated that hundreds had died in Miami, with more than 35,000 left with no homes. Damages were estimated at $105 million dollars in 1926, putting the total at more than $1.5 billion, according to a 1996 analysis.

It would take years for the city to attempt to recover and by then the Great Depression had begun.

Family members with injuries after "The Great Miami Hurricane of 1926," Miami
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As we navigate through another Hurricane Season, we invite you to stop by your local branch and pick up a Miami-Dade County Hurricane Readiness Guide to help you prepare if a storm hits our area.